


The all new-and-improved Neon J

by InfinityUndone



Series: The chaotic lives of 1010 [4]
Category: No Straight Roads (Video Game)
Genre: Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Gen, Heartwarming, Inspired by Fanart, i thought it was time something good happened to them, yinu's mom has a name
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-15
Updated: 2020-11-17
Packaged: 2021-03-09 17:41:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,516
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27570196
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/InfinityUndone/pseuds/InfinityUndone
Summary: For years, Neon J had been one of the top roboticists in Vinyl City, renowned for his work in the Metro Division and with 1010.For years, he also had a radar monitor for a head.So why had he never realized.He could just.Build a new head.Twenty-five whole years of not having a face and he had never thought of that himself?!
Relationships: 1010 & Neon J. (No Straight Roads)
Series: The chaotic lives of 1010 [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1939252
Comments: 17
Kudos: 167





	1. It's not easy being screen

**Author's Note:**

> So, I've seen quite a few artists drawing what they think Neon J would look like with an actual robot head instead of the screen-head, and inspiration struck me.

It was later than usual when Neon J finally got up for the day, much to his annoyance. The only thing 1010 had on the schedule that day was a talk show appearance in the evening, but it still made him feel put out to have wasted a few precious hours he could have spent songwriting, or building something, or doing anything productive.

Heading downstairs, he found the boys hanging out in one of the dining rooms. White was leafing through a music magazine. Blue was checking his phone with his pet lizards, Petey and Zelda, sitting on his shoulders. Green was frantically typing away on his laptop. Red and Yellow were having some kind of heated discussion.

“Morning, Dad.” White said.

“Good morning, troops.” Neon J said as he sat down at the table, mentally planning out the day.

“Check it out, they wrote a piece on us.” White held up the magazine, showing a page spread of photos Neon J recognized from a recent photo shoot.

Blue leaned in for a look. “Blech, my expression is so stupid in that one.” he muttered.

“What’s it about?” Neon J asked.

“It’s mostly photos. But they talk about next week’s concert. Not sure why, we don’t have anything special planned.”

“They probably just had to fill up a page.” said Blue.

The discussion between Yellow and Red had turned into an argument, as evidenced by Red shouting “You idiot! You don’t know anything-”

“More than you, obviously, because look it up, I’m right!”

“God, you are such a little-”

“Hey!” Neon J interrupted. “No name-calling! What’s this about?”

“Maybe Dad knows!” Yellow said to Red before turning to Neon J. “Dad, does Mace Windu killing Jango Fett make him partially responsible for Order 66?”

“...What?” Neon J said in complete confusion.

“Yes, it does.” Green called from where he was sitting.

“HA! I told you!” Yellow exclaimed triumphantly, while Red seethed. “It doesn’t matter if he didn’t know what it would lead to!”

Neon J didn’t really know what they were talking about, but the argument seemed to be resolved.

“Ugggghhh…” Green groaned loudly and slammed his head on the tabletop in frustration. “I hate essays. It’s a robotics class, why can’t we build robots?”

“You need to learn how to build the robot first, soldier.” Neon J said.

“Yeah, but this essay somehow makes learning that the most boring thing in the world! It’s frying my circuits!” sighed Green. He raised his head and stopped, before saying “Uh, Dad, you’ve got a huge smudge on your screen.”

Sure enough, he did. It was only visible when the light shone on it, but it stretched across the entire left side of his screen. Neon J guessed it had come from his late-night work last night.

It took a bit of scrubbing with a cloth to get the smudge off.

“Troops, consider yourselves lucky you don’t have screen heads.” Neon J said dryly as he sat back down.

“We remind ourselves that every day.” said Blue.

“Doesn’t it also fog up in the cold?” asked White.

“Fogs up, smudges, cracks easily, glitches… it’s a pain.” sighed Neon J.

“You know Dad, if you hate it so much, why don’t you just make a new one?” Green asked.

Neon J looked at him.

“I mean, you’re a roboticist, and technology has advanced since you got it. I bet you could make a way better head with the same technical capabilities.” Green pointed out.

White and Blue nodded. “If anyone could do it, it’s you.” said White.

Neon J sat there, his radar spinning slower as he thought about this.

Then he stood up.

Stared at the ceiling.

And screamed _“TWENTY-FIVE GODDAMN YEARS OF HAVING A SCREEN FOR A HEAD AND I NEVER THOUGHT OF THAT MYSELF?!”_

And with that, he stormed out of the room.

1010 all stared after him.

“Well, I guess we know what he’s doing for the rest of the day.” Blue finally said.

And sure enough, not long later the sounds of something being built started coming from Neon J’s workshop.

* * *

Several hours later, 1010 got back to the mansion from their talk show interview. Neon J had not come along, and was evidently still hard at work in his shop.

“He’s still going?” Yellow said in disbelief.

“Should we check on him?” asked Green.

White sent Neon J a message.

**White: We’re back. The mission was successful.**

**Neon J: Good to hear, troops.**

**White: Can we come to the workshop?**

**Neon J: Permission granted.**

They headed inside and down to the workshop. It always felt odd to them when they went in there, like they were walking into a completely different building. The tools and parts lining the walls stood in stark contrast to the rest of the immaculately decorated mansion.

Neon J was in the far back, and he looked up from what he was working on when they approached.

“Hey Dad. What’s the new project?” White asked.

“See for yourselves, troops.” Neon J said, gesturing to his project.

Sitting on the table was what appeared to be the beginnings of a robotic head.

“So you actually are making a new one.” an impressed Yellow said.

“What did you think he was working on all day?” asked Blue.

“Cool.” Green said as he went to inspect it. “Did you take this from our outdated models?”

“I’m impressed you noticed, soldier.” Neon J said. “Yes, I did. The frame is sturdy enough to suffice.”

While Neon J and Green discussed the finer points of robot head construction, Red and Blue had drifted over to a nearby table that was covered with old photographs. Picking one up, Red realized who exactly was in the picture.

“Dad, is this you?” Red held up the photo for him to see.

“Yes. I needed photo reference.”

The picture was of a much younger Neon J grinning at the camera, still with his organic head and limbs. They had seen pictures of him from before he became a cyborg before, but never this specific one. It was odd to see him with his old features. His dark purple skin, green eyes, and white hair were all things none of them had ever seen in person, and never would.

Blue looked at some of the other pictures, noticing that some of them were new to him. Some were of Neon J as a kid or teen, others had obviously been taken during the war. Some had other people in it too. Blue made a mental note to take a closer look at them later.

“So,” Green wondered, “when do you think it’ll be done?”

“I’m not sure. Probably a few days.” Neon J answered.

As 1010 left him to it, Red remarked “So I guess we won’t be seeing him for a while.”

“Yeah. I hope he doesn’t overwork himself.” sighed White.

“It’s Dad. He always overworks himself.” muttered Blue. “If we don’t see him at all by next evening, we should check on him again."

And sure enough, they saw very little of Neon J over the next couple of days. The following night, Green had gone to check on him and found him sound asleep at his worktable. The day after that, Neon J had left the workshop exactly once, to get some tools elsewhere in the mansion. And the day after that, they didn’t see him at all… until the evening.

* * *

It was finished.

Neon J stood back and stared at his work in satisfaction. Four days of pouring his heart, soul, and plenty of elbow grease into this project, and it was done.

He realized with a pang that he had basically neglected his duties to NSR in favor of building his new head. He would need to catch up on the work that had piled up in the last few days. But now the head was finished, and now he just had to put it on.

He headed over to the workshop’s mirror, and took a good long look at himself. Now that it was time, he felt less excited about the prospect of leaving his old radar monitor behind. Despite how much of a pain it was to deal with all the time, it was still a part of him, and had been for a quarter of a century. He had finished the war with it, built 1010 with it, it had been with him through thick and thin.

But on the other hand, having an actual face, with facial expressions and human features was something he’d always wanted back. Ideally, it would have been the one he’d been born with, but that had been lost to the war along with his limbs. With this, he could smile and blink and wear a hat...

The idea of finally being able to experience all that again made him steel his resolve. In robotics, change and improvement was necessary. He was no exception.

The giant machine he used to do large operations was programmed to do the switch. Neon J set it up, and lay down on the table. He prepared his systems to shut down, not wanting to be conscious for what was about to happen. Everything was ready. 3...2...1…

And he shut down, and darkness overcame him.

After what felt like mere seconds, but was in reality several minutes, he woke up.

Neon J sat up. His head felt noticeably heavier. His systems were back online, and seemed to be in working order. He reached up to feel his new face. A mouth, nose, eyes… it was all there. He had almost forgotten how it felt.

He walked to the mirror to inspect his head. It gave him a jolt to not see a radar monitor staring back at him. He took it in, getting used to his new look.

For the first time in twenty-five years, Neon J smiled.

* * *

Neon J found 1010 hanging out in one of the upstairs rec rooms. He could hear yelling from outside, and wondered if they were fighting. It turned out they were fighting, but in Smash Bros.

“C’MON YELLOW! YOU CAN DO IT!” exclaimed Green.

“KICK HIS ASS!” Red yelled at White. “YOU’RE BOTH AT ONE STOCK, FINISH HIM!”

“STOP YELLING, YOU’RE DISTRACTING ME!” White snapped back.

“HAHA! I WON!” Yellow cheered. “YESSSSS! I AM THE TRUE SMASH BROS MASTER, KNEEL BEFORE ME!”

Neon J cleared his throat.

1010 turned around to see him standing there with his new head. For a second, they only stared.

“Well? What do you think, troops?” Neon J asked.

“...Holy shit, it looks _awesome!”_ Blue said.

“Yeah! I hardly recognize you!” Yellow said. 1010 crowded around for a closer look.

The new look suited Neon J well. The head was mostly the same model as 1010, but with an older, more distinguished feel to it. Neon J had drawn inspiration from his pre-cyborg appearance. It had the same steel gray color as 1010, with green eyes, and white hair in a crew-cut style.

“Wooooow.” said Green in awe.

“Dad! You look so good!” White said.

“You’re gonna steal half our fans.” Red joked.

“How does it feel to be able to like, smile and stuff for the first time in years?” Yellow asked excitedly.

“It feels pretty good, soldier.” Neon J admitted.

“Aw man, it’s gonna take some time to get used to seeing you with an actual face.” Blue said.

“Test it out! Wink or something!” said Green.

Neon J flashed a smile and winked, earning applause from 1010.

“We should celebrate! I say we go hat-shopping!” Yellow said.

“Nothing’s open at this time of night.” White pointed out.

But there was only one hat Neon J wanted to wear.

He found it not long later, sitting in a box of his old war things he had in storage. His old uniform was neatly folded up inside, untouched for quite some time.

Sitting on top of it was his old captain’s hat. It was worn and dusty, but still holding together. He picked it up, brushed it off, and set it on his new head. In the years since he’d worn it last, it hadn’t changed at all.

It felt good to have it back.


	2. Turning heads

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The head was completed. Now it was time to show it to the world...

The next couple days at the mansion were pretty quiet. 1010 put the finishing touches on their dance moves while Neon J caught up with his NSR paperwork and preparations for the upcoming concert.

The new head was taking some getting used to from everyone. 1010, having known the man their entire lives, were used to reading his body language to know what his mood was, and having Neon J suddenly emote more was a bit of a shock.

On Neon J’s part, he had to basically relearn how to make and regulate his facial expressions. 1010’s way of helping with this was holding a poker tournament. It took losing five games in a row before he got it down.

The NSR meeting that afternoon would be his first time going in public with his new head. He didn’t want it to be a huge event, but 1010 had endless ideas for how to reveal it to the other artists.

“Okay, hear me out. Before the meeting, you activate our rocket boots, and we fly around the tower with you suspended from-”

“No.” Neon J told Yellow.

“Oh come on!” Yellow begged. “We never get to use those rocket boots!”

“Because they’re meant for combat uses only!”

“I had this idea where we get one of those giant cakes and when we bring it into the meeting you jump out of it.” Blue suggested.

“No, we’re not doing that either.”

“What if we dressed up like-” Green began.

“Enough!” ordered Neon J. “I don’t want this to be a huge spectacle.”

Despite his best efforts, he couldn’t convince them to drop it entirely, but at least their plans stopped involving rocket boots.

* * *

In the NSR meeting room, the artists were assembled around the long table. DJ Subatomic Supernova was reading a book. Tila, Dodo, and Sofa were laughing at something on Sofa’s phone, while Remi was doodling in his sketchbook. Yinu and her mother, Kassia, were chatting with Eve. Tatiana sat at the head of the table, overlooking it all.

“Where is Neon J?” Tatiana wondered. He was usually very punctual, showing up exactly fifteen minutes early to any engagement. Hopefully, he and 1010 were just stuck in traffic or something.

She was just about to start the meeting without them, when White dramatically flung open the double doors of the meeting room. “ARE? YOU? REEEAAAAADYYYYY?!” he declared with all the zeal of a wrestling announcer.

“YEEEEEEEEEAAAAAH!” cheered both Yinu and Dodo, throwing themselves wholeheartedly into whatever was going on. Everyone else just stared.

“Ready for what?” DJ SS finally asked.

“Presenting… the NEW...” -he struck a pose- “the IMPROVED...” -he struck another pose-“the ONE AND ONLY…” -he struck a final pose- _“NNNNNEEEEEEOOON J!”_

Neon J strode into the room, looking somewhat exasperated with the antics of his sons, but smiling in spite of himself. The rest of 1010 were behind him excitedly showering him in confetti.

The general response from the room was stunned silence, until Yinu said in complete earnestness “Who are you?”

“Didn’t you hear what I just said?!” White exclaimed in despair.

That broke the tension, and everyone laughed, before going to congratulate Neon J.

“It’s impressive.” DJ SS said as he took a closer look. “I assume you made it yourself?”

“I did.” answered Neon J. “It was quite a project.”

“Would this have anything to do with your paperwork being late?” Tatiana asked pointedly.

“Ah, well…”

Tatiana clasped his shoulder. “It’s fine, Neon J. And the new head looks good.” she told him with a smile.

“It’s very handsome.” Kassia winked.

“Mama!” Yinu exclaimed.

The meeting finally got started, and it went smoothly. Most of what everyone could talk about was Neon J’s new look, which didn’t make it a very productive meeting.

And after the meeting ended, everyone left with a few parting compliments to him.

* * *

The following day, when Neon J got up, 1010 were already downstairs, which was surprising. Usually none of them stirred before nine-thirty. They were crowded around Green’s laptop.

“Good morning troops. You’re up early.” Neon J said.

“Morning Dad.” Green mumbled. “Guess what?”

“What?”

“Someone got a picture of us outside the NSR tower. Our entire fanbase is talking about the new head.” Blue said gloomily.

“It’s not as bad as you make it sound.” White said. “The picture is from really far away, crappy quality, and it only got the back of your head. Only a small percentage of people discussing it think it’s you. The general consensus is that it’s actually _me._ ”

“Because of the hair color?” Neon J asked.

“Yeah. They think I got a new style.”

“Hmm.” Neon J said.

“So what are we gonna do?” Yellow wondered.

“Nothing we can do, soldier. There is no way we can scrub that picture off the internet. Just leave it alone.”

“Aww man, I can’t believe we lost out on getting to reveal it ourselves.” Yellow groaned.

“We really didn’t.” Blue pointed out. “Most people think it’s White.”

“Oh yeah, how are you going to reveal it?” Red asked Neon J.

“I’m not sure yet. I’ll think about it more after tonight's concert. Speaking of which, we’re doing one final rehearsal later this morning. Understand, troops?”

“Sir, yes sir!” 1010 said in unison. Neon J left the room, and White turned to his brothers.

“Tonight’s concert… I have a great idea.” he mused.

“So do I, but I don’t think it’s the same one you have, because my idea is a crossover between Star Wars and Alien.” Yellow said.

“Yeah, that wasn’t the idea I had. Listen up, guys…”

* * *

The concert was well underway, and going perfect. Neon J watched from backstage as 1010 made the crowd go wild. Their dance moves were on point, and their singing voices were perfectly synchronized.

1010 hit the last verse of their song, striking a pose, and the cheers of the fans filled the air as the Qwasa surged with energy. Waving charmingly at the crowd, 1010 filed backstage for the intermission.

“Excellent work, troops!” Neon J greeted them. “Is there any emergency maintenance needed?”

“None! All systems go.” White spoke for the group.

“Good. If there’s anything you need before you go back on, do it now.”

“You’re coming on with us!” White said.

“Excuse me, soldier?” Neon J must have misheard him.

“I said, you’re joining in for our next song!”

“Absolutely not!” Neon J exclaimed in disbelief.

“Yeah you are!” Yellow said with a grin. “What better way to show off your new head?”

“I will not do that, troops!”

“Why not?” Blue asked.

“Because I’m your manager!”

“Who cares?” demanded Red. “The fans would love it!”

“It’d be a really fitting way to reveal your new look.” Green added.

“And you wrote the song and taught us the dance moves. You probably know them better than we do.” Blue jumped in.

What they were saying made sense, but Neon J still wasn’t convinced.

“This wasn’t in the concert plans! You can’t just spring this on me, troops!”

“You plan for everything! Cut loose a bit!”

“It’d be really fun!”

“C’mon, Dad.”

“It’s just one song!”

“Please?”

They were looking at him with their most pleading eyes.

This wasn’t the way Neon J did things, he planned them to the last detail, instead of throwing caution to the winds. This went against his entire way of thinking.

And yet… maybe they were right.

“Fine.” he said, surprising himself with his decision.

“YES! You won’t regret it, Dad!” Yellow cheered.

This was a bad idea. What was he thinking? He was a manager, not a performer. His place was behind the scenes. He liked being backstage, making sure things ran smoothly.

But here he was now, the intermission was ending, and he was preparing to take the stage alongside his sons.

What the hell was he thinking?

His misgivings must have shown on his face because White whispered to him “You’re gonna do great, Dad!”

Right. He was a captain. If he could handle a war, he could handle anything. He adjusted his captains hat.

The lights dimmed, the crowd hushed, and they were walking onstage.

There was a shocked murmur that ran through the audience when they saw him standing up there with 1010. For a moment, Neon J was paralyzed with all their eyes on him.

The music started and he snapped back to reality.

And performed his heart out.

The crowd’s cheers nearly drowned out the song. 1010 couldn’t wipe the smiles off their faces as they danced and sang along.

The song ended, and the wild applause reached the skies.

Standing up there on the stage, listening to them cheer for him, Neon J felt better than he had in years.

Maybe it wasn’t so bad to be in the spotlight sometimes.


End file.
